From: Michael Loomis Subject: cmuOUT's discrimination in the NCOD ad Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 19:04:49 -0400 I am saddened by cmuOUT's unwarranted and inappropriate discrimination over the 1995 National Coming Out Day advertisement in this week's Tartan. As an outspoken and politically active gay man at Carnegie Mellon University, I wished to be in the NCOD ad as I had been in previous years. It's a matter of personal importance to me to identify as a gay person, as I suppose it is with the others who were allowed to appear in the ad. Donna Riley volunteered to coordinate the full-page advertisement for cmuOUT. On the cmu.student.out bboard, she wrote that anyone who wanted to be in the ad should send her email to schedule a picture-taking. In good faith, I sent Miss Riley mail, on September 27, 1995 (my mail, with an excerpt from her post, is attached). The ad appeared yesterday, but I have yet to receive a reply from Miss Riley. If someone offers to coordinate activities for cmuOUT, then that person is acting on the behalf of cmuOUT and has no right to deny participation to other gay, lesbian or supportive members of the community. Miss Riley and I have had political disagreements in the past, but I have had political disagreements with other people and have still remained on friendly terms with them. Indeed, social contacts between Miss Riley and myself have always been uniformly polite. I hate to think that she would exclude someone from the NCOD ad because she thinks their political beliefs are inappropriate. But I find it telling that 51 people were permitted to have their photographs included without problems, while I was denied that opportunity. For an organization that has an avowed purpose of promoting diversity, this is disheartening. Until cmuOUT is able to show that its activities are open to at least all gay people on campus, I feel that it would be highly inappropriate for cmuOUT to receive any funding from either student government or Student Affairs. Michael Loomis